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< < THEREOF LEV. xxv. 10.
T-^"
VOLUME I.] NEW YORK, NOVEMBER, 1855. [NUMBER 4
- >. L w T O I'.*'-- . • — .•*; yaa^unw
Ut i IJ 0 H t i 0 n u i •
W I L L I A M GOODELL, Editor,
Is Published Monthly,
STREET
BY THE CENTRAL ABOLITION COMMITTEE.
e r tumi i
(PKR ANNUM, OR FOR TWELVE NUMBERS.)
SINGLE COPIES #0*60
FIVE COPIES directed to one person 2.00
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Payments in advance.
All letters must be post-paid.
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postage.
PKOSPECTUS-The
" R A D I C A L A B O L I T I O N I S T " proposes a proclamation
of " liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants
thereof." It demands of the American Government and the
American People, the immediate and unconditional abolition
*
of. American Slavtry.
It makes this demand on behalf of three millions of
Americans already enslaved, on behalf of twenty millions
more in process of becoming enslaved, and in behalf of the
untold millions of their posterity, who must be enslaved
for ages to come, unless American Slavery be overthrown.
It urges this demand in the name of humanity chattel-ized,
republicanism disgraced, religion dishonored, the
Holy Scriptures perverted, the Saviour blasphemed, the
laws of nature and of nature's God trampled under foot.
It denies that the Federal G overnment, under the Federal
Constitution, has either a moral or a political right to tolerate
slavery, in any of the States belonging to the Federal Union,
for a single day.
" The United States S H A L L guarantee to E V E R Y State
in the Union a republican form of government."—Con-stitution.
•* The foundation of republican government is the right
of every citizen, in his person and property, and in their
management."—Jefferson.
It denies that " the reserved rights of the States" include
any such right as that of holding property in man, as no
such "right" can exist; and Mr. Madison tells us that
the Federal Convention would not permit the Constitution to
recognize any such right.— Vide Madison Papers.
It affirms that the Constitution unequivocally inhibits the
States from maintaining slavery.
" N o State shall pass any bill of attainder, or laws im­pairing
the obligation of contracts." And " N o person shall
be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process
of 4aw.''— Constitution.
It affirms that the Constitution was formed by "the
people of the United States," (all of them,) " to secure the
blessings of L I B E R T Y for (themselves) and (their) posterity,"
without exception or distinction of race or color. And hence,
no portion of " the people of the United States" can be con­stitutionally
enslaved, and the declared object of tiie Con­stitution
requires the Federal Government to "secure the
blessings of liberty" to each and all of them.
If the Const*tution is not available for these purposes, it is
of no practical value, it is condemned by its own high profes­sions,
and the people have no alternative left them but to
provide a better government for their protection, or become
the serfs of the petty oligarchy of three hundred thou­sand
slaveholders, who are now suffered to control and insult
a great nation.
The ' R A D I C A L ABOLITIONIST' recognizes as valid law no
unrighteous enactments. It affirms, with all the great writers
on C o m m o n Law, " that statutes against fundamental morality
are void;" that "no human laws have any validity if con­trary
to the law of God, and such of them as are valid derive
all their force, mediately, or immediately, from this original.'
—FORTBSCUE.
On this ground, as well as from the admitted absence of
any positive law in this country, establishing slavery; from
the known incompetency of the colonial legislatures under
British common law, to legalize it; from the ascertained
illegality of the African slave trade, by which the colonies
were supplied with slaves ; and from the unanimous declara­tion
of the thirteen original Staten, in the very act of estab­lishing
their independent governments, that all just govern­ments"
are founded on the "inalienable right" of "allmen"
to " life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," we affirm the
absolute illegality of American slavery. "We deny that it has
any more legality in Georgia than in Massachusetts ; that it
is a,ny more legal than the African slave-trade, or any other
form of piracy and crime.
The object of this paper will be to unfold, explain, vindi­cate,
and propagate these sentiments, calling on the people
to maintain them at the ballot-box, thus providing for a
federal legislature, a federal judiciary and a federal ex­ecutive,
that shall give them a national expression and
force.
•**
L A M E LOG-IC A N D EKKTNG ETHIS .
Constitutions expounded, irrespective of their u words
and sentences" !
Mr. H E N R Y C. W R I G H T , in the Liberator of
Sept. 21, assails the Constitution as being pro-slavery,
and gives, as an expression of his
views, some Resolutions presented at a Conven­tion
at Mesopotamia, (0.,) among which is the
following.
" Eesolved, That all who swear t$ support
the Constitution of the United States call G-od
to witness that they will submit to and help ex­ecute
the Will of the Slaveholder as the su­preme
law of the land."
One would think that so strong an affirmation
as this should be backed up by something like
strong evidence. The least that could be ex­pected,
would be some extract from the Consti­tution
itself, that should warrant the statement.
But no ! Mr. Henry C. Wright knew better,
it would seem, than to attempt producing
any evidence of that kind. Could he have
found any thing, in the document, to his pur­pose,
undoubtedly it would have been brought
forward. But it was not there. And so, he
substitutes in its stead, the following.
*• N o matter what words and sentences are on
that parchment, written there by the Conven­tion
of 1787. If every word were LIBERTY, the
slaveholders, if in the majority, by the consent
of all voters, have a right to make it mean Sla­very,
in the actuality. They have done so,
and will do so. Then, to swear to execute
the present. Constitution is to swear to be
true to the will of the slaveholder."
A n d so the grave question concerning the
character of the Constitution is, at length, set­tled—
and settled, too, without the slightest re­ference
to what the Constitution expresses !
" No matter what words and sentences " it con­tains.
It is " pro-slavery " any how ; and there
is the end of the matter ! W e could hardly
have believed our eyes, when we read this, if
we had not known to what straits the opponents
of the Constitution were driven, and had heard
something like it before, in the heat of verbal
debate. W e should not have dared to predict
that any one would ever deliberately take this
position, or could consciously entertain such a
sentiment. But here it is, in black and white,
and in plain terms. Here it is, in the Libera­tor,
and without a word of dissent from Mr.
Garrison. Hereafter, Mr. Wendell Phillips and
the writer of the American A. 8. Society's
Tract No. 1, will have no occasion to refer to
the provisions of the Constitution for their argu­ments.
The enterprise of proving the Consti­tution
pro-slavery, by that method, appears to
have been abandoned as hopeless. A more
promising method has been discovered. Hith­erto
the character of a document has been sup­posed
to depend somewhat upon tl the words
and sentences" of which it was composed. But
those times have gone by. " If every word" of
the Constitution " were LIBEHTY"—if it were
as faultless as Mr. Garrison himself could make
it—if it contained every syllable of the Anti-
Slavery Declaration of 1833, and if it contained
nothing else, it would be pro-slavery still—a
" covenant with death and an agreement with
hell"—and " all who swear to support it"
would ," call on G o d to witness that they will
submit to and help execute the Will of the
Slaveholder, as the supreme law of the land."
Let us see how this logic will work. If slave­holders
should get into the American Anti-Sla­very
Society—if they should come in sufficient
numbers to outvote and oust Mr. Garrison and
the other officers of the Society, (or if a majori­ty
of the original members should do this, and
apostatize,) and if they should wield its machi­nery
for their pro-slavery purposes, then the
Anti-Slavery Declaration of 1833 and the Con­stitution
of the American Anti-Slavery Society
then adopted, would be pro-slavery. And "all
who promise to support" that u Constitution,"
would " call G o d to witness that they will sub­mit
to and help execute the Will of the slave­holder,"
and his confederates !
Should it be said that the cases are not par­allel
because the Constitution of 1833 express­ly
excludes slaveholders, we answer—in the
words of Henry C. Wright—" N o matter what
words and sentences are written on that parch I
V t
ment, written there by the Convention of
/
n
18O°O°, • I
The doctrine of Henry C. Wright is, that the
character of the,Constitution is to be ascertain-,
ed and determined by the character of the offi­cials
w h o get possession of it and wield it. The
t» •
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26 R A D I C A L ABOLITIONIST.
m~* — y *
m»mtWr^ MM
same doctrine, in different language, was utter- " of it to the persons w h o signed the Warranty
" Deed, an attested copy of which I hold in m y
" hand. M y lawyers tell m e that their title to
D«iuo uu^imo, ixx UIMV!«IJU *
very is unconstitutional every where, and is to j written by Henry A . Wise to some political
be tolerated no where. j friends in N e w Orleans, shows what Southern
It cannot be done. And until this ground is men regard as the " main question :"
taken by the North, and by the strong men of
the North, its editors, senators and leading men,
the aggressive march of slavery will be onward
and northward, and " nothing can prevent that
consummation.5'
" If Mr. Broadhead is right,55 says the Tri-bune,
" all the remaining territory of the Union
is destined to form new Slave States.5' To be
The Kansas Nebraska bill repealed the Mis­souri
Compromise, which was the first act to
violate Washington's injunction not to recognise
geographical lines—which was the first to begin
a separation of the States! Now, the Kansas
and Nebraska bill simply restores to statu quo
ante 1819-20, where Washington, Adams,
Hancock and Jefferson, Virginia and Massa­chusetts,
and the Old Thirteen stood. The
question is, shall it be repealed, and a heart­burning
state be restored to the place of the
States are to become slave States, in defiance Constitution ? Virginia votes no, North Caro-of
all the empty parade and the idle swagger- lina, no, Georgia—glorious Georgia—no; Ala-the
"fusion" and the cwzfusion of all bama, no. The entire slaveholding States will,
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